Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant which stimulates the adrenal gland secretion of catecholamines, an excitatory neurotransmitter mediating the effects on cognition, emotion, and motor function​. Hence, caffeine is known to have broad physiological influence​s, affecting sleep patterns, mood, motor activity, heart rate, body core temperature and oxygen consumption.

There are mechanisms which could mediate a potential role of coffee on brain morphology and the risk of dementia and stroke. For example, brain volume changes may be caused by the antagonist binding of caffeine to adenosine receptors, inducing morphological change in mossy-fibres or pyramidal cells and a reduction of information transmission​. However, there are only a handful of studies looking into the associations between coffee intake and brain volume and they report inconsistent findings with positive​, Ushaped​ or negative​ association conclusions.

A Mendelian randomisation study has provided evidence for a potential adverse effect of higher coffee consumption on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, with each cup of coffee increasing the risk by 26%​.

However, observational evidence is inconsistent, and of the 11 most recent longitudinal cohort studies on habitual coffee intake and dementia risk, five supported a possible protective effect​, whereas six studies found no association​.  

Several recent studies on stroke have reported an inverse relationship​ with coffee consumption, while others have found no association​. There is also some evidence for a U-shaped association​ with respect to both outcomes, where moderate drinkers were reported to have the lowest stroke risk.